'Grow Your Own'
Embraced By Trend-Conscious Middle Classes
In recent years, many
people have chosen to devote some of their garden
space to the growing of food crops.
Initially, such amateur
production was exclusively directed towards
vegetables and fruit. Increasing numbers of hobby
gardeners, however, are now experimenting with
cereal crops.
Since Kate Moss revealed in
Hello Magazine that she grew wheat in
the garden of her small London home, this crop
has become something of a fashion statement
amongst the young, affluent, trend-conscious
middle classes.
Sophie Harrison-Smythe, a
designer and mother of two from Hampstead, London,
has allocated all the available garden space
adjoining her basement flat to wheat production.
‘We've about ten square yards of land,’
she told the gardening correspondent of The
Times. ‘Although we can only make three
loaves each year from the flour produced, I feel
it’s so important that the children, Lucinda
and Justin, have this locally grown, low carbon
footprint product. I supplement the yield,’
she added, ‘by growing wheat in pots in the
flat, instead of houseplants. I’ve even
given pet names to some of them,’ she
confessed. ‘Our family is passionate about
its agriculture.’
Ever pushing the boundaries
of fashion to impress and out-compete their peers
at dinner parties, some middle class trend-setters
have progressed from domestic wheat production to
the cultivation of rice.
‘Wheat has become a
little passé this season,’ opined Debora
Fortescue-Watson, an illustrator and mother of
two from Twickenham, London. ‘Instead,’
she told Gardeners’ World Magazine,
‘my partner, Jeremy, and I commissioned a
paddy field in the garden. It’s by the same
designer who did a swimming pool for David
Tennant. Of course,' she added, 'we insist upon
authentic, traditional Chinese agricultural
methods. I have a man who comes in to plough with
water buffalo.’
Despite this current
fashion trend, rice cultivation is difficult in
Southern England - in particular the requirement
for the crop to be grown underwater. Many rice
gardeners in the South of England were devastated
by the recent hosepipe ban. ‘However,’
said a spokesperson for Southern Water, ‘we
believe that the rising number of domestic paddy
fields in the South has been a major factor in
the drawdown of reservoirs to emergency levels.’
Recreational rice growing
has also created other problems. ‘Many
properties have experienced flooding as DIY mud
banks containing garden rice fields have
collapsed,’ noted a spokesperson for the
National Association of Insurers. ‘Cars and
property have also been damaged during water
buffalo stampedes. Sadly,’ she noted,
‘this has increased household insurance
premiums in the South.’
The complications of
growing cereal crops, together with traditional
vegetables and fruit having become unfashionable,
has led some hobby gardeners to turn to forestry.
Giant redwoods have proven particularly popular.
‘They can grow upwards
as much as six feet in one year,’ confirmed
Sarah Frobisher-Jones, a lifestyle consultant and
mother of two from Chelsea, London. ‘However,’
she told Forestry Today, ‘they can
take fifty years to reach five feet in diameter,
so it’s possible to contain one within the
area of a small patio such as ours. Apparently,’
she added, ‘you only need planning
permission and aircraft warning lights when they
get over one hundred and fifty feet tall.’
Fashion-conscious gardeners
wait with eager anticipation for hints of what
might be the next big domestic agricultural trend.
This is currently unclear, although the suburban
cultivation of sea kelp is believed to be gaining
popularity.
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